5 comments about A Touch of Tabasco.

1. I bought this LP at a yard sale in Lewiston Maine about 20 years ago and for years it was one of the few things I could count on in life to always make me happy. Rosie's honeyed belt voice and pure old-fashioned vocal style (when she hits a note, she nails it -- hell, she *owns* it!) never fail to please, and here it is juxtaposed with energetic Latin drums and brass that match it strength for strength. The songlist includes some very un-Latin standards dressed up in flamenco sleeves, with effects varying from humorous to sublime -- but never dull!



2. ...is the song sung by Rosemary Clooney accompanied by Perez Prado that now features under a tv-commercial in the Netherlands for Menzies, a life-insurance company. I'd love to download it, but can't find it here or in the i-Tunes library. Pity, since her version is great, clear, up-tempo and a wonderful alternative for all the other crooner imitation cover versions of Sinatra and the likes...



3. Perez Prado's spectacular recordings from the 60's,are easily recognized due to the unique mambo sound: screaming trumpets, repetitvie sax-riffs combined with trombones barking. Together with Rosemary Clooney, this CD really offers several all time high recordings, excellent for any occation. My favorite: Sway (forget about easylistening recordings, Dean Martin etc...Clooney and Prado offers something else on this tunes!)



4. Even as a young child, I always gravitated to latin music and to anything by Rosemary Clooney. Back in the late 50s, I was playing a stack of 45 records night and day and music began for me. There was something extraordinarily splendid about Rosemary Clooney's crystal clear voice. And Perez Prado - without question he is the Mambo King. Then you put the two together and it's like finding a secret treasure. And that treasure was recorded in 1959.
   
   That's what I thought the day I was browsing a used record store in the summer of 1979 and found the LP - Touch of Tabasco. I remember letting out a whoop, throwing down my money, and racing home to play this wonderful album. That piece of vinyl has long since warped, but thanks to the CD format, A Touch of Tabasco is back and better than ever. And the good news is -this won't warp!
   
   To say that Clooney and Prado found a congruity in their collaboration is an understatement. Clooney fully interpreted Prado's mambo rhythm and magical essence, and Prado clearly understood Clooney's range of talent.
   
   Just listen to their kick-butt versions of "Mack the Knife", "In a Little Spanish Town", "Corazon De Melon", and "Sway." Prado's Mambo orchestra under his direction was (and still is) the best mambo music ever recorded. And no one, to my mind, can match the vocal range and power of Rosemary Clooney.
   
   If you've acquired this "treasure," hang on to it, enjoy it, and pass this wonderful gift to your children!



5. Perhaps one of the most sought after albums by the great late, one and only true "Mambo King", Cuban band leader, pianist and composer,Damaso Perez Prado,who combined talents with famed American singer Rosemary Clooney for this early 60's album. Enjoy listening to Mambo versions of great all time classics like, "Corazon de Melon", "Adios","Mack the Knife", "Sway", "Magic is the Moonlight","I've Got Plenty of Nothing", "Cu Cu rru Cu Cu Paloma", "In a Little Spanish Town", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Bali Hai", "Like a Woman" and "Yo do Something to Me". This great compilation originally recorded and released on Vynil Lp format during the early 1960's, was discontinued after a few years and since then became an expensive and evasive collector's item for decades. Now, luckily it is available again on CD format. Album liners were written by equally famous Hollywood screen actor Jose Ferrer, then married to Rosemary. All these attributes make this compilation unique. Clooney and Prado should've been recorded extensively but unfortunately they only joined in this one and only recording project. I highly recommend it, do not miss this rare gem.

No comments about Jump for Joy.

No comments about Ben Bagley's Rodgers and Hart Revisited, Vol. 2.

2 comments about The Voice of America.

1. Warren Jones is spectacular and I thank him for bringing out the beauty of American Music.



2. 2 CD for only 6$ plus shipping and handling is a good price. The quality and the choices of tunes are good and the quality of recording is good too. The orchestras, the singers and the choirs are good too. So, if the titles of tunes please you, it is a good 2-CD boxset to buy. If you are an American, I am sure that you know all these tunes. If you are not an American, you will say to yourself : "I think that I have heard this song somewhere."

1 comments about Gettin' Sentimental.

1. If you yearn for the music of the Big Bands of the 40's and 50's, you will love this set. They just don't make music like this anymore.

5 comments about 16 Biggest Hits.

1. Liza, Liza, Liza! She may be a mess in her personal life, but here her voice is in top form and she offers up some true gems! "Liza With a Z" is a marvelous signature song and full of fun & humor, but nothing compares to her cover of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain"! The song is remixed with a disco/big bandish sound that is not only fun but catchy as all get out! I only wish she'd sing this again in tribute to her abused soon-to-be ex, David Gest! Other goodies include "New York, New York" (her signature song) and "Some People." If only Poppa had given her that $88 bucks!!!!



2. This is a fantastic collection of wonderfully remastered material! An absolute MUST HAVE for fans!



3. this is a very fun cd with some really great tracks. it spans the career of one of america's great performers. it's a good buy for the buck!



4. I wish there were alot more cuts on this collection,like "Exactly Like Me," from "Liza,Live at the Winter Garden."Its a part 2 of Liza's hit, "Liza with a Z," were everyone goes up to Liza and tells her they know someone,or they are the person who looks exactly like her,and I can't understand why"Old Friends" doesn't follow with the fantastic"Live alone and Like it," but for the most part,this set is fantastic.It would be great if everyone showed there support for Liza and made this record a huge hit.Liza's had nothing but health problems this past year,but I know she'll be back better than ever.



5. Of course 'Cabaret' and 'New York, New York' are here.....but why the strange title "16 Biggest Hits." They were certainly all hits with ME, so maybe that's what the title means....Hits with the True Fans who did love her, do love her, will always love her. But not to include 'The World Goes Round,' my all-time favorite Minnelli song? And I was thrilled to see Peter Allen's 'More Than I Like You' ("waiting in the rain.....where the hell's the train?") but why not his haunting 'Harbour' that Liza sang so beautifully on the other side of that original '45? I was glad to see 'Some People,' which Liza has made her own, but the same can be said about 'The Man I Love' and 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out,' neither of them included. And what about 'Maybe This Time' and "Tropical Nights' and 'God Bless the Child' (God bless Billie Holliday for turning that song over to Liza, but it is now HER property, should have been here!) Ah, well, be grateful for what we have.....her rousing 'Old Friend' and 'The Singer,' which I once heard was written about Judy just for Liza to sing. If not a true story....it should be. And now I suppose the words might apply to Liza herself, but my wish, hope, dream is that a new album is released soon.......she won't need compilations to remind people that here is the greatest entertainer of this or any era. Hang in there, Liza......we're right here beside you!!!!

5 comments about Not So Simply Broadway.

1. This is an incredible cd. I have thousands of cd's by cabaret singers and of broadway songs, but this one is truly different. It's not just Karen Mason's beautiful voice that makes this different, it's the arrangements, the saxophone and the flute and the accordian, it's her interpretations, it's her choice of songs. I just received this cd and I know already it's going to be one of my favorites. Everyone, do yourself a favor and get this cd. You won't be disappointed. I don't usually write reviews, but I had to this time.



2. THIS IS A SENSATIONAL ALBUM WITH KAREN'S VOICE CONTINUING TO SHOW COMPLETE CLARITY AND DEPTH. A WONDERFUL MIX OF STANDARDS AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN NEW SONGS...IT IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A WOMAN WHO DESERVES TO HAVE HER OWN SHOW ON BROADWAY. MAMMA MIA IS FINE AND DANDILY FUN, BUT WE WANT TO HEAR KAREN AND ALL THE GREAT SONGWRITERS WHO HAVE WRITTEN ESPECIALLY FOR HER VOICE.
   KAREN TAKES THE BOREDOM AND REPETITION OUT OF CABARET!!!!!



3. I purchased this CD some years ago now and it will always remain one of my all time favourites. There is not a bum track. "This Nearly was Mine" and, the unlikely, "Mr Snow" are superb. You may have heard many of these wonderful show songs before, but the arrangements are so fresh and exciting that the songs seem like new again. The success of this great album is shared between the singer, the top notch musicians (who get their chance to shine) and the brilliant production team. Now that it's been re-issued there's no excuse for you NOT to have this in your collection. I'm too far away- down under- to have had the opportunity to ever seen Karen Mason perform live - having this album is some compensation.



4. I have owned this recording for years, and am so pleased it has been reissued. The arrangements are stunning ... at times Karen's voice and the accompanying saxophone are intermingled so deliciously that it is difficult to tell which is which. The album was recorded acoustically in a church, which provides for a presence and ambience not found in drier studio recordings.

   I own over 700 cd's, and this is by far one of my favorites that I visit over and over again.

   Bravo Karen.




5. Karen Mason is at top form in this collection of show pieces. "This Nearly Was Mine" is worth the price of the CD all by itself. It's amazing that she's not gotten more recognition for her work as she's one of the theatre community's shining stars. You can also hear her on "The World Goes Round" cast album.

3 comments about Listen to My Heart.

1. Listen To My Heart is the hardest-to-find of Laurie's CDs and there is some fine work to be heard on this 1990 DRG recording. Laurie does terrific versions of "Unexpected Song" and "Memory" and she seems to excel always with Andrew Lloyd Webber's songs - her Andrew Lloyd Webber Album on Varese Sarabande is by far her best album - despite how you might feel about Andrew Lloyd Webber. There she reimagines several of ALW's tunes to make the wholly her own - her version of "Anything But Lonely" is quite simply perfect and heart-breaking! Her "Anyone Who Had A Heart" on this CD is thrilling, too! (And it is so nice to hear another version of that very popular song.) The problem with the Listen To My Heart CD is that it is so poorly engineered/recorded. Laurie has a BIG, BIG voice (at times) and the recording cannot contain the extremes and becomes distorted when Laurie really opens up. This is unfortunate because it simply ruins the title track - Listen To My Heart - and several other of the numbers are similarly compromised: "I Dreamed A Dream" for instance. For the completist who MUST have Listen To My Heart -please do not pay the ridiculous prices that are being asked for the recording on several Internet sites. Wait until you find it used somewhere or on an Internet auction site - due to the bad engineering it is not worth paying hundreds (or even dozens) of dollars for this disc!



2. Laurie Beechman had an amazing voice. It's so sad that she died from cancer with so much potential ahead for her. I own several of her CDs but this one is the best.



3. Laurie's amazing talent truly shines thru on this albumn. Although hard to find it is well worth it. You can't help but get goosebumps when you listen to the albumn. It's also great to have a recording of her "I Dreamed A Dream" and her "Memory" is probably the closest recording to her live version, you can truly feel the heavens open up when she sings "Touch me...". I fell in love with this albumn the first time I heard it and I know that you will too. My favorites include the title song and "I'll Be Here With You". This albumn is a true testiment to a wonderful person and an amazing talent.

1 comments about West Side Story: Oscar Peterson Trio.

1. The arrangements on this album are timeless, a model of masterful trio playing...and these are extraordinary compositions...recorded in the early 60's...fidelity is great...interplay within the trio is unbelieveable...something every player is going to want to take in the shed...the sheer virtuosity contained in this album will take your breath away...STILL fresh and vital after all these years...

1 comments about Best of Broadway: Till There Was You.

1. While the scores are good, some of the singers are lacking. Songs that I was hopoing would have a female voice were actually male and quite flat and not particularly good singers. Didn't find it helpful as a soprano when had to listen to a baritone or tenor!